 China |
 Philippines |
China-Philippines relations or Sino-Philippine relations (Chinese: 中菲關係, Zhōng fēi guānxì; Filipino: Ugnayan ng Tsina at Pilipinas) are the bilateral relations between the Imperial Dominion of China and the Royal Commonwealth of the Philippines.
China and the Philippines are allies, and members of the New Galleon Initiative, along with Indonesia, Mexico and Peru, and the Philippines also has one of the highest Overseas Chinese populations.
Chinese-Philippine relations go way back and predate the Spanish occupation, as the Chinese established trading states and vassals in what is today the Philippines, such as the Kingdom of Tondo and the State of Mai. Chinese influence was particularily strong in the northern parts. During the Spanish occupation, while Chinese continued to trade in the Spanish East Indies, and becoming wealthy.
During the Cold War, as a result of the Philippines' alliance with the United States against Japan during the Second World War, the Philippines was nominally pro-Western. However, when Ferdinand Marcos became president, he ended the Republic of the Philippines and turned it into a Kingdom and an absolute monarchy under Chinese and Russian support, expelling the U.S. and opening Subic Day to the Russian and Chinese navies with Marcos himself having Chinese ancestry, making the Philippines Southeast Asia's newest monarchy. China and the Russian Empire both supported the Philippine claim to Sabah as well as the Indonesian claim to Sipadan and Litigan. The Chinese purchased and established businesses in the Philippines to help stimulate the economy of the country as Marcos claimed that Chinese trade was essential for the well-being of the Philippines, praising China as being the center of Asian civilization. It is through this, that Manila at many points during the Cold War, emerged as a "Capital City of Asia".
After the collapse of the Russian Empire, the Philippines signed a new agreement with China and Russia, allowing for transfer of overseas Russian properties to China. In 2005, Philippines signed itself as a partner state of the Shanghai Pact, and signed a separate treaty of alliance with China.
The Philippines is often-not, a favorable destination for many Chinese students to learn Spanish and English. Chinese Christians have also considered the Philippines to be a "haven/sanctuary" for Christianity in Asia.